The Practice of Government in a Devolved Scotland: The Case of the Designation of the Cairngorms National Park

Proponents of devolution have argued that devolved governing leads to enhanced democratisation. This democratisation process is argued to be the result both of new governance structures and of new practices of governing which produce a new, more democratic, politics. The case of Scottish devolution is one example of where constitutional change was constructed as heralding a ‘new politics’. This proposition is analysed through a specific policy intervention in the devolved Scotland—the designation of a national park in the Cairngorms. This designation is traced from the instigation of national parks legislation to the formal creation of the park. The claim that devolution can bring about a more open and participatory approach to governing is critiqued. It is proposed that, although democratisation has a formed a political rationality of devolution, the actual practices of governing owe more to traditional rationalities of managerialism.